Apple CEO Tim Cook denounced a federal judge's order to crack open an iPhone used by a terrorist, calling the situation "chilling" and saying it
would deal a major setback to online privacy for all.

To hack the phone, the FBI wants Apple to build a new version of its iOS software that Cook claims bypasses the iPhone's security features and
creates "the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone's physical possession."

"The US government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create," Cook wrote in an open
letter posted on Apple's website. "They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone."

On Tuesday, a judge ordered Apple to assist the FBI in unlocking an iPhone linked to December's terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California. Cook
warned that such a version of iOS would create, for the first time, a backdoor into all of Apple's encrypted devices and would "undermine the very
freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect."

Encryption is a huge source of tension between tech companies and law enforcement. Companies including Apple, Google and WhatsApp protect the privacy
of their customers by encrypting data, often in a way that even the companies themselves cannot unscramble. Although that lets unscrupulous users such
as criminals or terrorists communicate without government surveillance, tech companies justify such security measures by insisting that it's
impossible to allow law enforcement to crack encryption without opening the door for criminals to do the same.

The FBI's plan would bypass security functions that limit how many times you can enter an incorrect password....

Me here: previous news reports, going back to last year, and some of the revelations re Snowden was that the NSA was reading and storing folks'
emails. Not at all sure if they REALLY can to that (and have done so), why the USA security agencies need any help from any digital company to read
the files on a phone (or any other digital device)????

I would hope that common sense would prevail and that Apple, or any other manufacturer, for that fact, is never forced to betray their customers
unless, of course this fact is made very public, so that people can act as circumspectly as they desire, given that most of their information is
public anyway. Ties in quite well with the petascale thread doesn't it?

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